Project 29 scheduled for completion by fall 2015

EDINBURG — A crash on Illinois 29 in 1992 cut Melody Traughber's life short, but her legacy has been anything but brief.

By Maggie MenderskiStaff Writer

EDINBURG — A crash on Illinois 29 in 1992 cut Melody Traughber's life short, but her legacy has been anything but brief.

The dangerous two-lane stretch south of Springfield where the accident occurred averaged about two or three fatalities per year in the late '80s and early '90s, and the 29-year-old's death shocked her family and her community into action.

For the past 22 years, a grassroots effort known as Project 29 has lobbied to widen the highway from two lanes to four between Rochester and Taylorville. In that time, Traughber's cousin, Lloyd Calvert, has watched the movement rise, halt and evolve. As construction continues on the final phase of the project near Edinburg, he's hoping that by fall 2015, two decades' worth of work will completely materialize.

“We were prepared for this,” Calvert said. “(The Illinois Department of Transportation) said it would take at least 20 years, and we said, ‘Bring it on.' ”

Traughber's family buried her just a few days before Christmas 1992. That holiday, they developed the effort to widen the highway, hoping to save other families from similar grief. Calvert and about 25 other individuals gathered at her grave site that January for the first Project 29 meeting.

As time progressed, the group saw up to 150 people attend monthly meetings.

But 22 years later, Calvert, now 58, has lost several other loved ones involved with the effort. Traughber's mother, Nellie Toneli, didn't live to see the project's completion. She died in 2011. Another uncle who had been heavily involved developed Alzheimer's disease. Calvert's mother passed away as well. A married couple who helped found the organization, too, has died.

Still, Calvert, who took over co-chairmanship of Project 29 in 2007, said the next generation has been eager to pick up where others have left off.

“As things get older, people get tired of it, and they don't want to see it through,” he said. “But people are committed to that road.”

Starting slowly

Project 29 first gained momentum with a 7,000-signature petition that circulated in late 1993. The group has always had the support to proceed, though not necessarily the funding to see its wishes through. Just as group members have phased in and out, so have interested politicians. But Calvert said the expansion has seen support from each of the four most recent governors.

The more than two-decade push first bore fruit in August 2004, when the first 5-mile section of new four-lane roadway opened between Rochester and Berry at a cost of $20 million. Two years later, in September 2006, a new 6.7-mile four-lane section of highway opened between Taylorville and Edinburg. That portion cost $27 million.

Calvert said the harshest lull came after the Taylorville expansion. Much of the support waned when the area near the largest town on the route was completed.

“There was little done and little talked about,” he said. “Interest was waning, naturally, because nothing was encouraged.”

Project 29 again pushed for progress in 2009 with a second petition. The group stood outside businesses and collected more than 3,000 signatures in favor of the final phase near Edinburg. That section of the nearly 20-mile project — 7.25 miles between Berry and Edinburg — began in August 2012. It will cost $41.7 million, and today is about 30 percent complete.

Paris Ervin, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said in an email that work is progressing as weather permits.

Project 29 also had a yearlong delay due to a cross-country natural gas pipeline that conflicted with the proposed road storm sewer drainage work. The sewer drainage had to be redesigned to avoid conflicting with the pipeline.

Most recently, the contractor has focused on embankment, excavation, culvert installation and pipe underdrains. About 15 percent of the hot-mix asphalt has been laid. Ervin said the contractor anticipates continuing the paving after the Fourth of July weekend.

Economic development

The endeavor began as a safety measure, but Mike Bell, co-chairman for Project 29, said it's also expected to spur economic development.

Ayerco will be one of the first businesses to follow Illinois 29 to its upcoming four-lane location on the edge of Edinburg. It likely won't be the last.

Ayerco has operated a store off Illinois 29 in Edinburg since 1979. As the highway reroutes from the center of town to the north in fall 2015, the company is preparing to move with it.

Carl Adams, vice president of Ayerco Convenience Centers, said his business requires the highway traffic to sustain itself in the town of about 1,100 people. When the movement to create four lanes from Rochester to Taylorville finally hit Edinburg, Ayerco began scouting locations to fit the new route.

“Edinburg is a small community, and, for us to be profitable, we need business off the highway and with the community to make it,” Adams said.

Ayerco isn't just moving its gas station and convenience store. It's upgrading it. The new Ayerco will act as a small truck stop complete with a Subway restaurant. Adams said that complex will bring roughly 20 new jobs to town.

Bell, who's seeking a seat in the state legislature in November, expects other businesses to purchase land near the truck stop as well. He said a used-car shop already has discussed purchasing property near the new highway.

“You're hearing people that want to move their businesses out there,” Bell said. “Like Subway. They're not relocating; they're coming.”

Taylorville Mayor Greg Brotherton said completion of Project 29 can't come soon enough. He said it really doesn't make much sense to have two outer portions of Illinois 29 expanded to four lanes while the center piece is still at two.

Brotherton said there are many factors to be considered when examining Taylorville's economic growth, but he believes the new highway certainly hasn't hurt. He said access is one of many things developers ask about when scouting a location.

“This completion is long overdue,” Brotherton said. “Anyone who has ever made that drive before knows it's just so much better, even now.”

Finishing up

Twenty-two years later, Calvert has several ghosts pushing him toward completion. It's not just the memory of his cousin and every other crash victim who died on Illinois 29; it's the effort the generation before him poured into the project.

The changes, while slow, have been encouraging. Fatalities have dipped since before the widening began. Data from IDOT shows Illinois 29 saw two fatalities per year in 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2012 from north of the Pana city limit to the approximate south city limit of Springfield. No one was killed in the years in between.

Still, Calvert and Bell say they aren't satisfied. Both said it's still hard to watch the cars and trucks barreling through the tiny town of Edinburg at high speeds on the narrow two-lane road.

Calvert's family felt the blow one wrong turn could have, and that has kept his focus on the project.

Even after all this time, Project 29 still meets once a month. The gears have shifted slightly. Today, the group is less about rallying support and raising money and more about ensuring the issue isn't forgotten. Calvert said it's important to still have a presence for when the project needs a little nudging. He intends for that effort to continue until motorists can travel safely on four lanes of that last 7.25 miles.

“It's not a question of money; it's just a question of time,” he said.